Instrument options (Tack Tick -> ?)

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mjcp

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I have a set of Tack Tick instruments on board - T120 Wind, DST, NMEA convertor etc and a few displays.

The T120 Wind has now expired. It stopped working end of the season and now, on disassembly, I noticed water (not just moisture) inside the unit. Battery and solar are both showing normal voltages, so suspect its the PCB that's toast.

So, what to replace it with? Another Tack Tick T120? (used of new £350-£700 it seems), B&G, Raymarine (new or previous gen i-Series), Garmin? Something else?

Might be relevant:
I also have a Garmin GPS that outputs 0183 (has 2k option too) to my DSC and the ST2000 plus. It also takes the DST / Wind feed as 0183 from teh Tack Tick stuff, via their bridge) I use Navionics and Orca on an Android tablet, not data feeds to ./from the boat instruments though.

Cost is somewhat relevant but I don't think I want to spend £1500 on a full new wind, DST, instruments etc this year :-( £500-£700 ? ok, that may work, but will it keep me in one corner, or give me a route to modernisation over time?

TLDR: what can I replace my T120 with that is well priced And/Or gives me modern options in the future?

M
 
Raymarine Wireless (formerly Tacktick) instruments are now discontinued although still supported by Raymarine for now. An option is to use a new wind transducer that outputs its data in a format that can then be put onto the Micronet wireless network that can be displayed on your Tacktick displays. Tacktick used to make a Micronet to NMEA0183 interface T122...

61166b41f00502ff4c181ae701992e5de2f1677a_t122_1.jpg


It sounds like you have one of those already and it does bridge wind data. However, when I tried it was too slow to update for wind with a passthrough of NMEA0183 wind messages taking seconds.

An alternative is the much speedier Raymarine NMEA2000 Micronet interface which while also discontinued is still available new...

Raymarine Wireless Micro-Talk Gateway | Force 4 Chandlery

You could then get a NMEA2000 wind transducer. Here's a cheap one. You can pay a lot more...

Nasa NMEA 2000 Wind System

and a STNG to NMNEA2000 converter...

https://www.marinesuperstore.com/gp...m-to-n2k-f-adaptor?gad_campaignid=19776997828

By the time you have bought and installed all this, including running a cable up the mast, you might as well just grit your teeth and buy a new Tacktick T120 wind transducer or send your existing unit to Raymarine service for a fixed price repair. I went through the same process and ended up buying a new T120.

An an aside, if you do get a new old stock T120 there are many reports of the cups holder coming off in a blow - as happened to mine. It's a good idea to remove the cups which then allows you to unscrew the cups holder from the shaft and re-attach it with threadlock.
 
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I've seen the Micro-talk puck in a few search results, having now read the docs, it is bi-directional so as you say, would fix one of the issues: Getting "modern" wind data onto my legacy displays.

Also spoke to Raymarine about out of warranty repair (didn't realise they'd still do the T120!) - £335 + VAT and shipping for a new unit with a 1yr wty (if they cannot repair for less). About 2 weeks turnaround. seems not unreasonable.

Cheers,
M
 
Raymarine stopped selling the Tacktick stuff middle of last year so there should be support for quite a few years to come. However, there are already some parts that the service centre have already run out of - for example bezels for the MN-100 displays as I discovered. Fortunately I found a shop in Germany that had new old stock bezels, and bought the lot.
 
There are at least 4 different ways to connect a masthead wind unit to a display - Seatalk, NMEA 0183, NMEA 2000 (aka SeaTalkNG) and wireless; probably multiple wireless standards in fact. Impossible to say what the best solution for your boat without knowing details about the current setup, your goals and budget.

I ended up replacing just about all displays and transducers from stem to stern - arguably it was very foolish (expensive, at least).

Probably the best thing to do is just replace the failed unit with a secondhand one from eBay or wherever.
 
Thinking about the future, i would be looking towards NMEA 2000. You could make a simple network with the plotter and a NMEA 2000 masthead wind transducer. Depending on your plotter, you should be able to display wind data there and if you still want it on the Tacktick display use the Micro-Talk above, or fit a Garmin GMI20.

Maybe not the cheapest solution, but better future proofing IMO.

Good value wind transducer here (no connection) : https://www.autonnic.com/product-page/wind-sensor-nmea2000
 
KompetentKrew said:
There are at least 4 different ways to connect a masthead wind unit to a display - Seatalk, NMEA 0183, NMEA 2000 (aka SeaTalkNG) and wireless;
Click to expand...
The OP has a Tacktick system. There is only a single way to connect to Tacktick wireless displays - Micronet - therefore either a Micronet wind transducer is needed or a Micronet interface. I tested the now obsolete T122 NMEA0183 to Micronet interface and its performance was poor. That leaves the Microtalk SeatalkNG to Micronet interface as the only alternative to a replacement T120 wind transducer.
 
Charlie Boy said:
I’d be inclined to replace with a NASA unit. Maybe not fashionable, but very functional

Nasa Clipper Wireless Wind System (CLIP-WWIND)
Click to expand...

I think that the OP just wants just the transducer, not the display as well. That transducer (which is available on its own) outputs NMEA0183. As I reported above there is no suitable way of getting NMEA0183 wind data onto a Tacktick display because the obsolete Tacktick T122 interface is too low performance for wind data, even though it does do it.
 
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AngusMcDoon said:
That and the Micotalk gateway is a good alternative to replacing the T120 transducer, but does need a wired connection installing.
Click to expand...
Agreed. The transducer and gateway are similar money to a new T120, but as as you say, it does need a cable up the mast, which is just a standard N2K backbone cable. So a bit more work and cost, but does give good future proofing, i think.
 
PaulRainbow said:
Agreed. The transducer and gateway are similar money to a new T120, but as as you say, it does need a cable up the mast, which is just a standard N2K backbone cable. So a bit more work and cost, but does give good future proofing, i think.
Click to expand...
The cheapest quickest option is probably the Raymarine fixed price repair of the OP's Tacktick T120 wind transducer - easy to do with the mast in place. The refurbished transducer should be good for a few more years. Mast down and up is quite a significant cost on its own if it needs to come down just for cable installation.
 
Thanks all, I agree the Autonnic and a Micro-talk puck looks like a great combo... if Raymarine didn't have the fix price option.

That's the power of these fora: ask a question and 2 different, but valid answers that I wasn't aware of return!

I've bitten the bullet and booked the repair. It was working fine before the water ingress, so minimal change / legwork to return to working again. Also, my mast comes down every winter, so that means disconnecting electrics etc, the fewer through decks the better. Its more straight forward with "normal" wire, but more of a pain with N2k terminated cables I expect? (Is there a through deck SeatalkNG junction?)

Perhaps next time there's an issue the 2k jump will be on the cards!

Cheers,
Marc
 
mjcp said:
Thanks all, I agree the Autonnic and a Micro-talk puck looks like a great combo... if Raymarine didn't have the fix price option.

That's the power of these fora: ask a question and 2 different, but valid answers that I wasn't aware of return!

I've bitten the bullet and booked the repair. It was working fine before the water ingress, so minimal change / legwork to return to working again. Also, my mast comes down every winter, so that means disconnecting electrics etc, the fewer through decks the better. Its more straight forward with "normal" wire, but more of a pain with N2k terminated cables I expect? (Is there a through deck SeatalkNG junction?)

Perhaps next time there's an issue the 2k jump will be on the cards!

Cheers,
Marc
Click to expand...
You can feed an N2K cable down from the top, with a connector on top, but not the bottom. You can then run a cable from the N2K network to beneath the mast without a connector, then join the wires together. It's easy to do, should you decide to go N2K in future.
 
Oh ffs... I was boxing up the wind vane to send off for the fixed price repair, put the display in the (unusually available) sun to give it a decent charge, turned it on and it connected to the vane in the box... doh!

Let's see if they will refund the fee!

M
 
AngusMcDoon said:
So the T120 survived getting wet inside?
Click to expand...
Seems so - there was certainly "wet" water inside the battery shrink wrap and condensation under the solar cover.

I disassembled, left the bits (minus the battery) on the radiator for a day.

The battery was pretty low, so I charged it over night at 3.1V (I have a bench power supply). (Mine has an aftermarket battery - charge info here: Sanyo ML2430) Battery was showing ~3V the next day. I had put the display in the window to catch the sun, happened to power it on and it linked to the vane!

Think I will get some conformal coating and slather it on before it goes back onboard - belt + braces!

M
 
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